This is a great review of inbound marketing but I'm not sure I agree with the 'outbound' marketing slides. Pay per click, for example, might be seen as an outbound marketing methodology by your presentation above. Stating that outbound marketing 'isn't working' isn't true in all situations. PPC can have an incredible return on investment.

Email is another tool you state is 'outbound'; however, opt-in email is a huge tactic in most companies arsenal to drive leads internal. I'd argue that a company without an effective email program is just plain dumb. It's still a primary communication medium for most people.

Every medium has advantages and disadvantages, and must be leveraged appropriately. Rather than pitting one against the other, you should be trying to educate how to measure and use all of the mediums. Then let the return on investment tell the real story and decide where you put your efforts.

In this presentation, attendees will learn the basics of inbound marketing and how it can be used to build a business. Describe your marketing background. Through Inbound Marketing University (IMU), you have become an Inbound Marketing Certified Professional, which acknowledges your proficiency in blogging, social media, search engine optimization (SEO), lead conversion, lead nurturing and closed-loop analysis. This content is part of the Inbound Marketing University.

Outbound marketing strategies are becoming less effective in today’s world. We now have devices (e.g. spam blockers, TiVo/DVRs, caller ID, etc.) that allow us to block out the messages being pushed onto us People are doing their own research to figure out which products and services they want to buy

Inbound Marketing (or modern marketing) is marketing using techniques focused on getting found by prospects; inbound marketing is a more efficient and cost-effective way to do marketing. Pull in customers to your business by creating content, optimizing that content for search engines and promoting and sharing that content in social media A helpful overview of inbound marketing can be found at http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/4416/Inbound-Marketing-the-Next-Phase-of-Marketing-on-the-Web.aspx

Outbound marketing depends on the size of your wallet; inbound marketing depends on the size of your brain! You can only do outbound marketing if you have a lot of money. If you have a lot of brains (intelligence), do inbound marketing.

Image: 92% of businesses who are lowering their 2010 budget say the cause is the economy. 58% of businesses who are increasing their 2010 budget say the cause is their success and business growth from inbound marketing. Companies who are using inbound marketing are producing results that earn increased budgets (in a difficult economy!)

When getting started in inbound marketing, make sure you ask your team these questions.

Publish ALL of your content. This can be in the form of a blog, podcast, videos, photos, presentations, eBooks or news releases.

Research shows that companies that blog attract 55% more web site visitors than companies that don’t blog.

Publish content that has the greatest chance of being shared by others. Types of content that rarely gets shared: Product info Software documentation Content that is all about you Types of content that frequently gets shared: New market data (market/industry research/reports/studies) Educational content; Top-notch blog articles Content about your industry

Image: There are four main components of on-page SEO, or optimizing the content of your web page for search engines. Make sure to use your best keywords within those four locations. However, Google bases only 25% of your content’s ranking on on-page SEO

Image: The above scatter plot shows a correlation between a website’s number of indexed pages and inbound links. Websites with more indexed pages tend to get more inbound links. The more content you create and the more remarkable it is, the more inbound links you’ll get.

There is a fine line between self-adulation (the promotion of accomplishments) and self-promotion (the promotion of ideas). – Nathan Hangen of Copyblogger Focus on the latter, not the former People want to consume helpful content, not information about you.

Think about your target audience(s) for your products/services. Create and define personas for each (there may be more than one). Always think of your personas when creating content. Ask yourself: Would this piece of content appeal/be helpful to one or all of my personas?

Image: A few examples of places to engage in social media are the comments section of a blog post, a Facebook Fan Page or a Twitter account. Social media involvement is a two-way street Create an engaging presence by encouraging discussions and sharing engaging and thought-provoking content (e.g. online events, videos, Facebook discussions blog articles, etc.)

Share links to your content on social media sites and throughout appropriate online social networks. Sharing content regularly will also help build your network on those channels.

Image: Include “share buttons” on your blog posts and other content. Promoting content yourself is important, but help others spread and share your content by making it easy for them to do so Include share buttons on all of your content Provoke brand evangelism

Image: Companies that actively use a social media channel are acquiring customers from that channel. For example: 46% of companies who actively publish a company blog have acquired a customer from that blog. Social media engagements = ROI Companies are acquiring customers as a result of their involvement in social media channels.

Image: Include a call to action on the bottom of your blog posts. Calls to action are offers that prompt people to fill out a form on a landing page, which converts a visitor into a lead. Calls to action are critical to lead generation.

Image: When someone clicks on a call to action, it should bring them to a landing page with a form. Landing pages with forms covert website visitors into leads that a sales team can follow up with.

Image: Be sure to measure your different landing pages and their rates of conversion. Conversion is the percentage of visitors who converted into leads. Keep track of your conversion rates &amp; analytics to determine which calls to action are working.

Marketing analytics are an important part of your inbound marketing programs. Track the sources of your traffic to understand which channels send the best traffic and leads. Monitor these analytics daily and evaluate which techniques are working and which aren’t. Use this data to modify your inbound marketing campaigns to do more of what works and less of what doesn’t.

The Inbound Marketing Methodology: As you complete the first three steps, make sure to continue to analyze how your traffic converts.

Show off your certification and offer the opportunity to your peers!

Transcript of "Intro to Inbound Marketing (To be used by Inbound Marketing Certified Professionals)"

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Introduction to Inbound Marketing Presenter Name Title Company Twitter: @_______

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Key Questions to Get Started <ul><li>Am I regularly creating new, share-worthy content? </li></ul><ul><li>Am I optimizing my content for search and social media? </li></ul><ul><li>Am I promoting my content in social media conversations? </li></ul><ul><li>Am I converting as many visitors into leads and sales as I can? </li></ul>